Congratulations to Helder for winning, Dino for podium finish, and all who finished!
In my mind this track was tricky, and I never really learned to master it like I would like have wanted. As a result, I hope I learned something I can use in the future.
Qualifying: 1:45.256 (2nd )
Ok lap. I was hoping to get front row position and that's what happened, so I am pleased.
Race: 2nd
I chose two stop strategy, because there was pretty obvious chance of rain, and I thought 2 stops would allow more flexibility. I had also decided to change rear tyres in the first stop and front tyres in the second stop. With this strategy I was supposed to get weight advantage and shorter pit stops over my rivals.
My start from 2nd grid was not bad, but David got an excellent start and managed to overtake me before T1. It was visible that I had lighter car, and after some good fighting
on 2nd lap I got a perfect slipstream for Hangar straight, and made a successful overtaking at the braking for Stowe. By this time Helder had been able to build up a gap of 2 seconds, and I started to push to catch him. By lap 8, our gap was only 0.4 secs, and I could really start pressuring. There was some good racing moves again (will be a good highlight compilation video at the end of the season, if it continues like this
) and my best chance was on lap 9 when I actually led the race for 5 seconds, but Helder managed to re-overtake. On lap 14 I went to pits for my first scheduled stop. The stop went without problems.
I came back at P5 right behind Jim, and I could immediately feel that my car was very understeery now with rear tyres changed. I made a double change at Luffield in my first lap out of pits and lost around 2 seconds. On lap 19, I was so close to Jim that I could have tried overtaking, but then he went to pits, and I found myself in P2 as Helder and David had also pitted. I then tried to push with my understeery car, so that I could build up a decent gap for my second stop. On lap 24, when I pitted second time, I had around 21 second gap to Reik and Helder.
I exited pits right behind Helder at P3, and when Reik pitted in the next lap, I was in good position at P2 just 1.7 seconds behind race leader Helder. The problem was that my car now was dangerously oversteery due to my fresh front tyres and worn rear tyres. I quickly noticed that it was impossible to put up a good challenge for Helder, and he was able to pull away. The car was very tricky to handle, and towards the end of the race Dino was catching fast, so it was pretty stressing, but I managed to make error free last stint and secured second place finish by just some 2.4 seconds.
Conclusion: I will not try changing rear tyres and front tyres in separate stops anymore
that is for sure. I doubt that I had had the pace to challenge Helder in here even with perfect strategy, but I think he got his points a bit too easy in here. I have to make sure next time he has to fight harder for winning
Thanks to Presto GP, RaceDepartment, SimBin, and all drivers!
See you all at Nürburgring!